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31

Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 21, 2025, 09:21:36 pm »

Right now, only Mario Kart World has any appeal to me, but I don't really enjoy the kart racer sub-genre that much, so I may just be impressed by its presumed level of quality. I'm sure that I'll own a Switch 2 eventually, but it may be some time after its launch.

If they didn't have the free roam mode, I'd be saying the same, but it sounds like I'll be able to explore and do stuff, otherwise it's more of a multiplayer thing.  It's why I really loved Sonic All-Stars Transformed, because they had a whole campaign to do stuff that unlocked things that was more than simply just racing the tracks and that was something Mario Kart always lacked.  It's why I thought Diddy Kong Racing was better than Mario Kart at the time.

That and Donkey Kong Bananza in July would have been enough to get me interested in a launch release, maybe even a replay of Breath of the Wild if I decide to give in to the stupid upgrade thing...still unsure about that...but neither have quite the impact as Super Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild was for me with the Switch 1 launch.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 21, 2025, 02:10:38 pm »

And now the Zelda amiibo got a 10 dollar price increase.  Guess I'm not getting those anymore.  Such a bummer launch of this system.

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Off Topic / Re: What TV/Netflix show are you currently watching? (Megathread)

« on: April 20, 2025, 04:54:51 pm »

Legend of Vox Machina: Season 3 - Continues to be a fantastic series, it's a quality fantasy setting with great voice acting, good action, and a good story.  I really have no negatives to say about it, this series is a big recommend and I can't wait for Season 4.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 18, 2025, 08:11:46 pm »

At this point, I probably won't buy one at launch, nothing is working out for it, economy is too much of a mess for no good reason, though thankfully the Switch 2 itself avoided the price jumps Nintendo just did, putting it all on the accessories, none of which I specifically need.  I might try for one this year if anything changes as my Switch is currently borked with a bad battery, but we'll see how things go.

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Off Topic / Re: What TV/Netflix show are you currently watching? (Megathread)

« on: April 17, 2025, 03:24:14 am »

Finally got around to finishing Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean with the recent announcement of the new series hitting.  Just when I think this series can't get anymore out there and absurd, it hits a new level of weird lol I could not explain anything about the ending of this show at all, it really went over the top.  Some fun characters and moments, but I'm kinda leaning towards liking this less than the other newer era shows such as Diamond and Golden.  I like Jolyne a good bit, more than Giorno, not sure compared to Josuke, but I think it's just elements like Pucci only being an okay villain to me, and the ending gets kinda too weird in a way that didn't feel all that satisfying.

Nothing bad, but I am interested to see where Steel Ball Run takes things as people are kinda hyping it up a bunch.  Currently I think Stardust Crusaders is still my favorite as I prefer the older style more and I really dig the characters.

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Off Topic / Re: What TV/Netflix show are you currently watching? (Megathread)

« on: April 16, 2025, 02:51:11 pm »

Watched a good bit of the original Bleach anime, around 30+ episodes so far, but  annoyingly the only place streaming it, Hulu, is just missing episodes with the dub.  I skipped two, but for this next section for awhile, there's multiple episodes that don't have a dub and seem to just have episodes with a built in, low quality, subtitling (The show quality is not great being that it's pre HD era for the most part), and it makes casual watching annoying as I'm watching it while doing something. 

Might try and get back to watching the series eventually as I want to get through it all, I never watched it back in the day as it came out after that initial late 90's/early 00's anime boom in the west and I just never got around to watching it too much beyond some early episodes.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: April 15, 2025, 02:52:38 am »

9 - Minecraft: Beyond Depth (PC) - ENDLESS/DROPPED - With the recent Minecraft stuff and a video series I got into, got me into the mood for Minecraft.  Turns out base Minecraft is incredibly boring these days lol So I found a pretty reasonable mod that greatly expands the game into more of an entertaining adventure, more challenge, and tons of content and things to find.  An annoying downside is that they never did anything to change mob amount and the sort of enemies you get coming after you at night can be impossible to fight, despite having way better gear.  It's so frustrating because it just doesn't feel balanced at all.  When it was just base game zombies, spiders, and skeletons, it was okay, but now there's crazy fast or powerful enemies that'll stomp you almost immediately.  It's ridiculous.  Been abit since I've rage quit a game, but I got fed up trying to make runs back to my body in the nether lol

It's a really great mod, there's so much more to do and while I feel like a lot of the loot sucks, so often not getting much of value, there were really good moments and there was still so much to explore, I think more dimensions beyond the Undergrowth and Nether, but I'm tired of getting swamped by mobs I literally can't kill fast enough despite having the best gear I can get at that moment lol I played a bunch of hours, but I think I got what I wanted for a return to Minecraft for now.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 07, 2025, 06:43:29 pm »

It's fine if you don't care to have them. But saying trophy systems dont add anything to a game is like saying in game collectibles don't. That secret unlockables in general don't. All trophies are is that idea but conveniently organized on a public profile. Saying they dont add to a game is shocking to me. It's alienating an entire playstyle of gamers to say they dont matter because they just do. Some people love to do completionist stuff with games.  Weather you care to have it or not doesnt change that it's a highly demanded and desired feature that has been industry standard for at least 15 years.

In game collectibles can often be tied to actually earning something, which makes them infinitely more interesting than a console based achievement system.  Like if there's something for me to find in each level and getting them all will give me a skin, or mode, or weapon, or whatever, I'll do that, but not because I got an achievement.  Most achievements are often just earned playing through the game and as Dhaabi pointed out, are not something devs always want to deal with so are there mostly because they have to.  I can certainly appreciate the idea of a game log utilizing it, and I know there are people that like it, but to me, if the only reason you'll play through a game 100%, often with games people don't even really like a ton, all so you can see that Platinum Trophy pop up...does it really matter?

I wouldn't have an issue if they added something at all, I'll just make that clear, I just see no real need to make sure it's there.  Also "industry standard" doesn't mean much when Battle Passes, Memberships, and Paid Online For Consoles are also industry standards...That being said, I wish Nintendo actually would do the industry standard of having a competent online system lol Throw any possible achievement system resources into that instead lol

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 07, 2025, 03:44:34 pm »

I personally can't think of anything more unimportant to have than the achievement system, they add nothing to the games and most companies if they really want it, can just add it in directly if they actually want it.

I'd also be fine with paying..."fine" might be a strong word"...but I'd be okay with a game having a charge price to upgrade if it came with added content, because that's actual new content being added to the game, as long as it's fairly priced.  Anything more than 10 bucks is egregious.  It makes a little more sense with Kirby and Mario Party, but falls apart entirely when it comes to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, which should 100% be free updates.  I really want to say that Nintendo will back off something here, but with all the economic issues coming up, I'm pretty sure they are far less inclined to do so, even with all the negative feedback.

That being said, Mario Party's additions with all the new Switch 2 features sound absolutely awful, so I question charging for that anyways lol

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 04, 2025, 03:10:29 pm »

To change the convo to something less sad and unfortunate, I'm curious if there will be anything to do in the Free Roam for Mario Kart World.  I got kind of hyped for it at first, because I thought it could be something fun you do when you don't want to do normal racing, but I'm not hearing anything come out about there being anything extra...Challenges, bonuses races, whatever that could be, allowing for possible singleplayer content beyond just doing grand prix and unlocking extras like usual.  It sounds like it's basically just a "Sandbox" mode where you get to go to all the tracks without a timer, which is kinda neat, but that would be something I do a for an hour or two and then never touch again.

*EDIT*
I wrote that and then found a clip that did have a Nintendo Treehouse rep saying that they do have more to show for Free Roam in the future, which makes me think there will be more to do, so hopefully that's true because while the game itself looks like fun, the Free Roam stuff is what I'm most interested to see how htey handle.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 03, 2025, 09:10:28 pm »

For hours nonstop, people spammed some form of a "drop the price" comment in Nintendo Treehouse's livestream today. What a rare moment of unity.

Yeah it's been awhile since I've seen this many people united against Nintendo, can't even remember the last time that there was this much loud and open backlash.  It'll be interesting to see if this translates into slower adoption rates out of the gate.  This won't be a Wii U situation at all, I think Switch is too big for that, but the sheer massive leap in costs across the board was way too aggressive.  They probably could've gotten away with just the 450 console, maybe the 70 dollar max game price, and then had free updates no problem.  If they changed their minds on the updates, I think that could do a lot to remedy things, but Nintendo is incredibly unlikely to do that, especially if they think they'll still have enough sales.

It doesn't help that the timing is the worst with the USA about to hit a big economic downturn, so luxury fun items seeing giant leaps in costs hurts all the more.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 02, 2025, 07:54:57 pm »

I could see the Switch's price not being the best if you maybe bought an OLED in the past couple years or even a Lite, but for me, I still own my launch Switch, it's been 8 years since then, so this upgrade is fine to me. I also personally don't see the gap to be as bad compared to Playstation/Xbox now as it was with Switch 1, like they are putting brand new games on Switch 2 and while Elden Ring and Cyberpunk don't look amazing, that's kind of an achievement to get those games on there and not have them look like complete ass, which I could not say the same for most of those Switch ports.  It's still a difference, games will not look nearly as good compared to even a base PS5, but the leap from PS4 to PS5 was never that crazy huge to me, it's an update for sure, but to me, each console generation gets less and less of this huge, noticeable jump.

Also to throw this in, don't try and trade your Switch right now, the base version at Gamestop only goes for 30 bucks, it's not good lol

*EDIT* Oh and it turns out my battery is just toast on my Switch, didn't realize that till right now as I never played it handheld, so no trade in for me anymore even if they do a deal lol

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 02, 2025, 07:05:50 pm »

Doing what an Xbox One X could do 6 years ago at 50 dollars more than a PS5 slim is not bad?  I'd beg to differ.

It's only 50 bucks more than the Steam Deck equivalent and that thing is like a brick in comparison to the Switch.  I'm not saying it's great, I was just expecting the worst, but the worst came in other areas of the systems pricing and push away from physical releases lol

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 02, 2025, 05:37:41 pm »

I forgot to mention The Duskbloods in my original post, but it certainly looked good. Nowhere in the actual trailer did the game mention it being multiplayer, though, so that's a huge disappointment.

Also, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Hollow Knight: Silksong being revealed to have a 2025 release at any point in this topic.

I think it's kinda funny that a game that has has had years of hype building for it, like Silksong, was just randomly tossed out there in a highlight reel lol The heads that would've blown up had they done the Deltrarune reveal, and then gone right into a Silksong trailer lol I personally have no interest, I thought Hollow Knight was fine, I forgot I did beat it, but I didn't really get super into it.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 - 4.2.2025 thoughts?

« on: April 02, 2025, 03:36:48 pm »

Some huge highs and lows with this for sure.

Mario Kart World looks sick, happy to see another Hyrule Warriors, Donkey Kong Bonanaza has me excited for Donkey Kong for the first time since probably Donkey Kong 64, getting "Not-Bloodborne" is crazy, and I like they are pushing for better framerates.  Deltarune Chapter 3 and 4 getting surprised announced was wild lol

Something funny about the Hyrule Warriors reveal, I got myself all hyped up with the idea that they were doing Tears of the Kingdom DLC, and it was going to be all about Zelda from the past and I was so excited, just to have the gameplay kick and remember that I saw Koei Tecmo at the start of this, realizing it was Hyrule Warriors.  I'm still very into it, I enjoyed the last one, so to get a new one that will actually run decent is dope lol

Honestly surprised at the power behind the system as it puts it way more on part with the current state of gaming than the Switch 1 was, and doing it for 450 bucks? Not bad at all. 

The lows are the bat shit costs for games.  Charging for upgrades? 20 dollar game price hike? Charging for your tech demo tutorial? The hell Nintendo? This is a new level of greed, even for them.  It does hamper my excitement a bit for sure, like I was excited to play both Breath of the Wild and TOTK again, but am I gonna have to now pay 10 to 20 bucks simply for a performance update per those games? Are they gonna do a Pokemon Scarlet/Violet update that actually fixes the game they abandoned? It's such a shitty move from them.  If what they were adding was actual content, like Super Mario Party seems to have like all new minigames, it's not so out there, but nothing is coming to BOTW/TOTK other than app support.

So yeah, while some things aren't great, I am still quite interested in the Switch 2 and there are definitely enough stuff coming right away to get to likely buy one, but I just wish they didn't pull so much nonsense.

*EDIT*
Oh, The Duskbloods hype is completely dead, it's not a Bloodborne spiritual successor, it's a PvPvE multiplayer game.  No wonder I thought the presentation was a tad off.  It could be fine, but I have no interest in this or the Elden Ring multiplayer game at all.  Real bummer as I thought Nintendo pulled out something impressive here.